Former stock filler Abdelhamid Idrissi starts free supermarket for vulnerable families

Be careful when you visit social entrepreneur Abdelhamid Idrissi in one of his 47 study rooms in the vulnerable neighborhoods of Amsterdam and Zaandam. Before you know it, you will be helping underprivileged young people with their homework, finding an internship or having an important conversation. The government wants to do more to combat the transmission of poverty from parent to child. Former stock filler Idrissi has been doing this for years, with an army of volunteers. His latest project: a supermarket where families can temporarily shop for free. Who is this acclaimed inequality fighter?

‘Afterwards I had pain in my cheeks from smiling’, says lawyer Elsbeth van Rhijn, who visited a study room for a foundation that donates money to charities. ‘The way he treats the children; the attention for good behavior, the calm, safe atmosphere. Abdelhamid is a visionary who knows how to touch everyone with the stories he tells about the children.’

Government official Ronilla Snellen: ‘Abdelhamid is a bridge between the privileged world of highly educated white Dutch people and that of the vulnerable neighbourhoods, where many residents are concerned with survival.’ You know it exists, Snellen says, but Abdelhamid also makes you feel it. ‘He is the king of the inequality of opportunity’.

Volunteers in line

Advisor Bojana Duovski does not find it strange that volunteers are queuing up to help Idrissi. Like Van Rhijn and Snellen, she offers her services voluntarily. ‘There is a waiting list because everyone can see that they sincerely want to help the children from these neighbourhoods’. Appreciations such as Amsterdammer of the Year (2019) or the Hélène de Montigny Prize (2022) do not mean much to him, according to her. ‘He is only really happy when a child texts good news.’

33-year-old Idrissi grew up in the Amsterdam suburb of Geuzenveld, where relatively many children grow up in poverty, hang out on the street and drop out of school. His parents, who do not speak Dutch, allowed him to sit alone at school, at a sports club or at home, he says in the newspaper. podcast New Audience Working† His father advised him to study architecture, because then you always have a job. ‘I lay awake for a month with a stomachache, I had never been outside my neighbourhood, had to take the metro for the first time. I thought it bothered everyone, but it wasn’t.’ Idrissi discovered that his fellow students did have a laptop and internet at home, dared to ask questions and politely say ‘no’.

In the Albert Heijn, where Idrissi has a side job, neighbors look up to him because he is studying. He says he is disturbed by the bullying and macho behavior of his peers and decides to address one colleague about it. ‘I showed interest, patted on the back, explained how to talk to customers, and the importance of a smile. After two weeks it was a different boy!’ After his studies, Idrissi finds work at a construction company, but in the end he chooses the neighborhood supermarket. When asked, Idrissi wrote about this choice: ‘It quickly became clear that the youth in the supermarket needed me more than the construction world. I felt that I made the difference there.’

Study rooms throughout the Netherlands

When he was 22, Idrissi set up his first study room for children in Geuzenveld. His foundation now has two hundred employees, 42 of whom are paid, and he receives money from the municipality and companies. It took years, says Idrissi, before he understood the steps needed to help vulnerable children: alleviating poverty (for example with the free supermarket), then boosting self-confidence (more skills) and then discovering the world outside their neighborhood (for example, going to a museum). Idrissi dreams of study rooms throughout the Netherlands. He has also started counseling parents.

Ask about Idrissi’s weak side, and all the advisors say the same thing: he can’t keep a course. ‘Everyone wants something from him – children, parents, companies, governments – and he never says no,’ sighs adviser Duovski. ‘I explained to him that it is better for someone else to screw in new lamps and hang up clean tea towels’, says lawyer Van Rhijn. Every meeting he comes up with new plans. Then I tell him to focus. That trip for the children can also be done later.’ Official Snellen: ‘His strength is his commitment. But now it is time for strategic choices. It’s better to do six things well than ten things a little.’

New project: free supermarket

Furthermore, the king from Geuzenveld is too modest. ‘It’s part of its charm,’ says Snellen, ‘but to get financing you sometimes have to bluff. I had to save him once, when he told a potential sponsor that he didn’t know how his project would turn out either.’ Anyone who invites Idrissi to a symposium can expect a bill from now on. Anyone who wants to make a good impression with attention to inequality of opportunity, says Duovski, must also be prepared to make a contribution to the foundation.

Idrissi started a last week crowdfunding for his FRIS supermarket† The intention is that eighty families who use his study rooms will be able to shop there free of charge for six months. Provided that they use that rest to give their lives a positive spin. Young people also gain work experience in the supermarket. ‘Supermarket chains can play a key role in supporting underprivileged young people and families,’ says Duovski. ‘We have approached many chains, but they do not fully understand our concept. So now Abdelhamid is starting his own shop.’